Sam Neill

Few stars could boast a track record of turning in solid performances ranging from understated intensity to completely unhinged with such consistency as actor Sam Neill. Beginning with his work as a m...
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Anthony LaPaglia hopes to produce the first English language film adaptation of Arthur Miller’s classic A View From the Bridge. LaPaglia will star as Eddie, the Italian immigrant who takes on two illegal immigrants in his Brooklyn home. Joining him is Vera Farmiga and Mia Wasikowska as Eddie’s wife and niece, respectively (duh). Also cast is Sam Neill and Sebastian Stan. This seemingly stellar cast begins filming the project early this summer.
Now, Farmiga is an incredible actress and will probably do wonders with the role. That I have no problem with. My problem is with Wasikowska. Don’t get me wrong, it's nothing personal. She’s a fine actress, too. But Scarlett Johansson won a Tony for the role and was originally supposed to play the part before backing out; no one can compete with that. Sorry Wasikowska, it’s not you, it’s me. Well, it’s not really me, it’s Scarlett Johansson.
Source: Variety

I’m not saying that Sam Neill is awesome because his name is Sam, but it helps. I’m pretty sure Neill would be just as awesome if he had a lame name like, for example, Danny. But in case there was any doubt as to whether Neill was awesome or not, he had himself cast as the lead in J.J. Abrams' new mystery show Alcatraz. Neill will co-star opposite previously announced female lead Sarah Jones (rawr - and not the dinosaur roar that must haunt Neill to this day, but a respectful rawr commenting on Jones’ attractiveness) and the guy-who-just-can’t-escape-any-island, Jorge Garcia.
Now Deadline reports that Neill’s character will be “the head of a government agency who radiates authority and piercing intelligence” while Jones leads a group of FBI agents in charge of tracking down the missing prisoners and guards. While there was no mention of any dinosaurs, I’m sure that was just an oversight.
Source: Deadline

Filming on the long-gestating Lord Of The Rings prequel has been thrown into jeopardy after unions in New Zealand criticised producer Peter Jackson and instigated a boycott over the alleged "unfair treatment" of performers.
The film was due to be shot in the country, but movie bosses have since admitted they are looking at other locations to avoid clashing with union representatives.
Neill has now waded into the debate, insisting talks need to be held to prevent the dispute boiling over and threatening his home country's film industry.
He tells the Otago Daily Times, "(The) anger and hysteria (must stop). The sooner we see calm and sweet reason return the better. This is not hard. Shaking hands and a cup of tea should do it... Both parties - it seems to me - need to sit down, take a deep breath and begin talking and - more importantly - listening, in the friendly and cooperative way we do things in the New Zealand film industry.
"And we all need to remember that Peter Jackson and his outfit and the actors of New Zealand have been very good for each other over the years."
And the Jurassic Park star is adamant politicians, including New Zealand prime minister John Key who accused unions of holding movie bosses to "ransom", should stay out of the dispute.
He adds, "Unless they wish to calm the situation or indeed mediate, our politicians should absolutely be quiet. The last thing we need here is for the situation to be politicised. It doesn't help to have lots of people yelling from the sideline."
The Hobbit has suffered numerous problems in recent months - it has been on hold due to the ongoing financial problems at MGM Studios and director Guillermo del Toro quit because of the lengthy delays. A studio in Wellington which was due to host filming of the blockbuster was also damaged in a fire last week (ends03Oct10).

The story was made famous by the Brothers Grimm and is best remembered in 1937 animated Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but other incarnations have included little-known 1997 horror Snoww White: A Tale of Terror, starring Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill.
Now Hollywood executives are hoping to follow the success of Tim Burton's recent re-imagining of Alice In Wonderland by bringing Snow White back to the big screen in an "edgier" modern tale called The Brothers Grimm: Snow White.
X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner will act as a producer on the project.
Meet Bill director Bernie Goldmann, who is also producing, reveals several high-profile names have already expressed an interest in the film, but he's refusing to divulge any details.
He tells Variety.com, "Talent and directors of the highest level have already responded to the new, edgier concept, and to (the) script.
"While retaining the elements of the beloved Brothers Grimm tale, this is certainly not your mother's Snow White."

Weird Science: Cinema's Five Worst Experiments
Science fiction films, much more so than books, have always used audience’s fear of the unknown in order to sell tickets. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, in some exaggerated Hollywood context, especially when dealing with near-future technology. The film Splice is one of the latest of the techno-fear movies, playing on the long-time and still all-too-current phobia we seem to have of scientists who mess around in what some consider to be only God’s sandbox: genetics. The film tells the story of two lab rats (Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley) who secretly splice together a mish-mash of animal genes with human DNA and end up with a new creature they name “Dren”. As you might imagine, things don’t exactly end up sunshine and rainbows. But it’s hardly the first film to express society’s fears of the worst that could happen...
The Island of Doctor Moreau
H.G. Wells original novel in 1896 was written as a reaction to public fears on animal vivisection and of degeneration, conjecture on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution that humans might not always be the dominant adapted species. It wasn’t until the third adaptation of the story into a film that the story’s root techno-fear became genetic tampering. John Frankenheimer helmed this version in 1996 starring Marlon Brando as the crazed doctor and Val Kilmer as the survivor of a plane crash who bears witness’s to the island’s mixture’s of human and animal DNA (including the perhaps uncomfortably sexy Fairuza Balk as a half-cat lady). The film was a gigantic mess and a failure both financially and critically, one which has been chalked up to a number of factors, but most notably, Frankenheimer directly attacking Kilmer and Brando as being totally impossible to work with. There’s an appeal though, so long after the fact the mess seems like more of a fascinating one.
The Boys From Brazil
When someone brought up cloning as a concept to the seventies, the decade lost it’s damn mind, no more memorably so than in the ’78 British/American co-production of Ira Levin’s novel of the worst possible post WWII nightmare. Some folks, even today, claim this actually happened (crazy people, mind you). I’m of course talking about, Hitler clones. Laurence Olivier hunts down Gregory Peck as Josepf Mengele who is trying to perform the heinous genetic recreation. Or has already....many times. Believe it or not, this fun but silly sci-fi film scored three Oscar nominations. And it’s even got a young Steve Guttenberg in it! Of course, in retrospect, many believe Guttenberg’s career itself to have been a third reich plot to instill mediocrity into the western world.
The Fly
If you’ve seen David Cronenberg’s masterful 1986 remake of the 1958 film, then you’re going to be smacked in the face with thematic similarities when you watch Splice. There’s no getting past it: more than just a little influence came from this Jeff Goldblum starring horror film. He plays a scientist who has come up with an almost-functional teleportation chamber. When his new girlfriend (Geena Davis) gives him the idea of how to make it be able to transport things of the fleshy variety, he tries it out on himself, only to regret not having built in a more no-nonsense safety buffer. His DNA becomes fused with an errant fly who was in the machine with him, which at first seems great, as he is gifted with added strength and dexterity; if Stan Lee had come up with the idea first, it would be a superhero origin film. But it’s a Cronenberg film, which means horrible HORRIBLE mutations start happening and the worst/best (depending on your viewpoint) kind of get-under-your-skin body horror proceeds to turn things rather gooey.
Jurassic Park
Isn’t science wonderful? Why, old man John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is a modern day Walt Disney, taking the forefront of science and genetic engineering to do the most wonderful thing imaginable: bringing back to life the dinosaurs! At least on paper perhaps it sounded great, but as Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and others discover, not so much in practice. “Nature always finds a way”, Goldblum’s chaos theory scientist opines, and of course, he nails it on the head as the genetic solution Hammond’s scientists came up with to fill in sequence gaps, leads to the uncontrolled breeding that is the worst case scenario for the island. Audiences and critics largely embraced the film, many reacting with the same sort of sense of wonder the characters in it expressed (at first) at the dinosaurs in it, the effects being game-changing at the time. It was popular enough for it to garner two not-as-successful sequels and I think everyone fully expects the long-planned fourth movie to eventually rear it’s potentially ugly head.
Gattaca
As obvious a good thing as it would seem to many, the idea of using genetic technology to protect the human genome from abnormalities, there certainly would be a possible dark side to it, one which this 1997 sci-fi film explores. Ethan Hawke plays a man born without the use of this tech and finds himself in a society that, regardless of genetic discrimination laws, doesn’t allow “In-Valid”s such as himself to do much. When he meets Jude Law, a former athlete who was paralyzed in a suicide attempt, he buys his DNA identity in order to pursue his own dream of becoming an astronaut. Of course, there’s no problem with that genetic resume to get the job, but shortly before launch, a man is murdered and some of that borrowed DNA is found on the crime scene. Hawke has to dodge the detective (Alan Arkin) and hope that not only he is cleared of the crime, but that no one discovers his deception and that his new girlfriend (Uma Thurman) doesn’t react as most women have since the beginning of time to the genetically insufficient. Of all the films about such things, Gattaca has the greatest feel of ‘it could happen’ and it has garnered a respectable cult following since it’s release. Even though it wasn’t a smash theatrically, over ten years later there’s now a television show adaptation in the works. Some sci-fi seems more prescient than most; all we can do is hope that Gattaca isn’t one of them.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog is reporting that Warner Bros./Village Roadshow Pictures have decided to give Zack Snyder’s animated adaptation of the popular children’s book series, Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a new title. The film will now be called 'Legend of the Guardians'. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on September 24th, 2010.
The film is based on the first three installments of the book series: The Capture, The Journey, and The Rescue.
The story follows a young barn owl named Soren (Jim Sturgess), who is kidnapped by owls of St. Aggie’s,where owlets are brainwashed into becoming soldiers. He and his new friends escape to the island of Ga’Hoole, to assist its noble, wise owls who fight the army being created by the wicked rulers of St. Aggie’s.
The film features the voice talent of Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin and Helen Mirren.

McCallum passed away on Wednesday (03Feb10) at a nursing home in Sydney. No other details about his death were released as WENN went to press.
The Brisbane-born TV guru began his career as an actor, training in London and going on to star in numerous roles on the stage both in the U.K. and in his native Australia.
He later moved on to roles in TV and film, before stepping behind the camera to write, direct and produce.
McCallum famously created 1960s TV hit Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, which became a global success, and worked on a string of movies including 1982 war picture Attack Force Z - which gave starring roles to then-unknown actors Mel Gibson and Sam Neill.
In 1971 McCallum was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to drama and theatre, and he was later named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1992.
McCallum is survived by his wife Googie and children Joanna, Nicholas and Amanda.

FILM
Best Motion Picture – Drama:
Avatar WINNER!
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama:
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side WINNER!
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama:
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart WINNER!
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy:
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover WINNER!
It's Complicated
Julie &amp; Julia
Nine
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy:
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie &amp; Julia WINNER!
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy:
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes WINNER!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Mo'Nique, Precious WINNER!
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds WINNER!
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger Best Animated Feature Film: Coraline Fantastic Mr. Fox Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs The Princess and the Frog Up WINNER! Best Foreign Language Film: Baaria Broken Embraces The Maid A Prophet The White Ribbon WINNER! Best Director -- Motion Picture: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker James Cameron, Avatar WINNER! Clint Eastwood, Invictus Jason Reitman, Up in the Air Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9 Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air WINNER! Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds TELEVISION Best Television Series - Drama: Big Love Dexter House Mad Men WINNER! True Blood Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama: Glenn Close - Damages January Jones - Mad Men Julianna Margulies - The Good Wife WINNER! Anna Paquin - True Blood Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama: Simon Baker - The Mentalist Michael C. Hall - Dexter WINNER! Jon Hamm - Mad Men Hugh Laurie - House Bill Paxton - Big Love Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical: 30 Rock Entourage Glee WINNER! Modern Family The Office Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical: Toni Collette - United States Of Tara WINNER! Courteney Cox - Cougar Town Edie Falco - Nurse Jackie Tina Fey - 30 Rock Lea Michele - Glee Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical: Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock WINNER! Steve Carell - The Office David Duchovny - Californication Thomas Jane - Hung Matthew Morrison – Glee

The original 1993 film, starring Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum, was a massive success, grossing $914 million (£571 million) worldwide and spawning two sequels.
Now, nine years after Jurassic Park III hit cinemas in 2001, movie bosses are planning to let the dinosaurs roam the earth once again.
And Joe Johnston, who directed the third installment, reveals a new movie will be closely followed by two more.
He tells BoxOffice.com, "There is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it's going to be unlike anything you've seen. It breaks away from the first three - it's essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It's going to be done in a completely different way.
"If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don't want to make sequel after sequel just because there's a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories."

Dinosaur-movie franchise Jurassic Park is set to take another bite out of the box office -- Hollywood bosses are planning to bring a second trilogy to the big screen.
The original 1993 film, starring Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum, was a massive success, grossing $914 million worldwide and spawning two sequels.
Now, nine years after Jurassic Park III hit theaters in 2001, movie bosses are planning to let the dinosaurs roam the earth once again.
And Joe Johnston, who directed the third installment, reveals a new movie will be closely followed by two more.
He tells BoxOffice.com, "There is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it's going to be unlike anything you've seen. It breaks away from the first three -- it's essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It's going to be done in a completely different way.
"If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don't want to make sequel after sequel just because there's a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories."
(c) 2009 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All global rights reserved. No unauthorized copying or re-distributing permitted.

Featured opposite Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum in romantic drama "The Vow"

Played Captain Second Rank Vasily Borodin in "The Hunt for Red October"

Played the title role of Sidney Reilly on the PBS drama series "Reilly, Ace of Spies"; earned a Golden Globe nomination

Played opposite Judy Davis in CBS's "One Against the Wind"

Played the lead in "The Revengers' Comedies," co-starring Helena Bonham Carter and Kristin Scott Thomas (aired in the U.S. as "Sweet Revenge")

Re-teamed with Judy Davis for the black comedy "Children of the Revolution"

Starred as the New Zealand farmer who enters an arranged marriage with a Scottish woman in Jane Campion's "The Piano"

Played a paleontologist who encounters dinosaurs in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster "Jurassic Park"

Acted opposite Meryl Streep in Fred Schepisi's "Plenty"

Re-teamed with Carpenter for "In the Mouth of Madness"

Played the father of Kirsten Dunst's character in the romantic comedy "Wimbledon"

Acted in Wim Wenders' "Until the End of the World"

First association with director John Carpenter, "Memoirs of an Invisible Man"

Played a lead role in the based-on-fact NBC movie "Submerged"

Returned to documentary filmmaking with "Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey By Sam Neill," an autobiographical account of the New Zealand cinema; co-directed and co-scripted with Julie Rymer

Re-teamed with Peter O'Toole in the Canadian miniseries "Iron Road"

Starred in the Australian film "The Dish"

Co-starred with Cate Blanchett in the Australian film "Little Fish"

Cast as Jeremiah Blackthorn on the NBC adventure series "Crusoe"

Made feature film debut playing the lead in Roger Donaldson's "Sleeping Dogs" (first New Zealand production ever released in U.S.)

Portrayed the legendary wizard in the acclaimed NBC miniseries "Merlin"; received an Emmy nomination

Appeared in the Scandinavian drama "The Zoo Keeper"

Starred in the Australian film "Death in Brunswick"

Summary

Few stars could boast a track record of turning in solid performances ranging from understated intensity to completely unhinged with such consistency as actor Sam Neill. Beginning with his work as a member of the New Zealand National Film Unit, Neill began to make a name for himself in his homeland with small films like "Sleeping Dogs" (1977). After moving to Australia for various film and television work, he received international exposure with the third entry in the popular "Omen" horror series as Damian Thorn in "The Final Conflict" (1981). From there it was on to a nearly uninterrupted run of impressive performances alongside some of film's biggest stars in projects such as the underrated "Dead Calm" (1989), co-starring Nicole Kidman, and the Academy Award-winning "The Piano" (1993), featuring Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunter. Neill then headlined one of the biggest blockbuster films of all time as the levelheaded Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" (1993). Almost effortlessly, he would continue to move from genres ranging from horror (1995's "In the Mouth of Madness"), to comedy (2000's "The Dish"), to historical drama (the 2007 season of Showtime's "The Tudors"), and back again with apparent ease. Over the years, the once supposedly camera shy Neill had steadily become one of the most welcome international presences on screen - be it film or television - of his generation.

acted together in "The Final Conflict" (1981); never married; Mother of Neill's son Tim

Dermot Neill

Father

New Zealander who served in the British Army; family owned Neill & Company (now Wilson Neill & Co.), one of New Zealand's largest liquor wholesalers; died in 1991

Priscilla Neill

Mother

British

Elena Neill

Daughter

Born January 10, 1991; mother, Noriko Watanbe

Tim Neill

Son

Born in 1983; mother, Lisa Harrow

Michael Neill

Brother

Born c. 1943

Juliet Neill

Sister

Born c. 1950

Noriko Watanbe

Wife

Japanese; met on the set of "Dead Calm" (1989); married in 1989

Education

Name

Victoria University

University of Canterbury

Christ College

Notes

Neill was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1991.

"I am deeply into pop culture, especially pop music. I think Dion's 'The Wanderer,' for me the great 60s rock and roll song, will probably endure much longer than most of the stuff we actors do. Pop music is like the sense of smell – the most potent trigger for memories. Anyway, I was at one of these Oscar parties and I was so excited to meet Mick Jagger, I blurted out, 'Mick, I've always wanted to meet you. I saw you at such-and-so in 1964,' and immediately his expression completely changed and he snapped, 'Great,' or something like that. I went and buried my head in my hands. How could I be so inane?" – Neill quoted to Movieline, December 1997/January 1998